Labyrinth is the developer name given to the unused arena of the early version of the 16th colossus, when it was still called 'Buddha' and was not the final boss.
A sketch of Labyrinth created in 2003 from the Ico and Shadow of the Colossus PS3 booklet is described by Fumito Ueda as "an image of it (Buddha) standing alone in a place where a city once stood". It featured multiple underground tunnels around it that connected to each other, forming a network of complex tunnels in the likeness of a labyrinth, which is where the location gets its name from.
Screenshot of I8, showing the ground. Note the lack of blending between textures.
Labyrinth's textures consisted of simplistic textures of ground, dirt, rock, and stone structures, indicating that the arena was still in a crude state before work was halted on it. The surrounding quadrants I8 and J7, which can still be found in the final game, have no texture blending, supporting the idea of the arena being crude.
A texture from Labyrinth called "mk_drygl_mip" has another variant (mk_drygl_02) that is only listed in "buddha_A_boot_body", being the dirt monument found in the E3 Demo build which encased the boss before the battle started. This could mean that there were some dirt left in the platform where the colossus stood, and it likely connected to the dirt surrounding Buddha's feet, as can be seen on the model of the 16th colossus' from the E3 Demo. There's also another texture, called "ym_bk_wall", that is only currently used in F8 Sanctuary's collapsible bridge.
Textures
Below is a list of textures found in the arena's texture segment from the PS3 Data Sheets. Textures that are unknown (not available in any public builds) will not have images and their names will not be bolded.
Texture
Creator
Note
mk_iwahada3_1_mip
Masanori Kajita
Rock texture. An alternate version, named 'mk_iwahada3_mip', is used on quadrant H1, on the mountains beyond the Parthenon cliff.
mk_world_wall_mip01
Masanori Kajita
Mountain texture.
lb_dry_ground
Unknown (Parts Library)
Ground texture.
mk_sijimen_patd_mip
Masanori Kajita
Path texture.
dry_ground_b02
Unknown
Visually identical to 'lb_dry_ground'.
ym_baiyon_wall
Unknown
Wall texture.
mk_iwahada
Masanori Kajita
Rock texture.
mkgl2k_mip
Masanori Kajita
Unknown texture.
ym_bk_wall
Unknown
Broken texture.
mk_drygl_mip
Masanori Kajita
Dirt texture. An alternate version, named 'sz_mk_drygl_02', is used on the E3 Demo version of the 16th colossus, on its encasement of dirt. A similar texture named 'sz_iwa_l7c' is also used around the boss' feet in the same build.
Location
The location of Labyrinth in a mockup version of the early map.
The textures, besides suggesting that it was located somewhere along the southern half of the Ancient Lands, also match with the textures from the leftover models of J7 and I8. Both of these quadrants appear to have been connected in the past, with "I7" being in the center of them. Buddha appears to have lived in I7 when the southeastern area of the map was larger.
Trivia
The sheets indicate that F8 was just a normal quadrant and not a colossus arena originally, suggesting that Labyrinth wasn't located at F8.
Comparison between the texture used on the 5th colossus' structures and the Buddha stage texture.
A texture from the 5th colossus' arena set on the material "buddha_wall_1" (the texture name being "mk_canyaonst_03"), seems to be a larger, alternate version of another texture related to Buddha that is not used in its final arena, called "ot_buddha_st_3" (Buddha Stage 3). However, despite the name, it likely is not related to the Buddha boss at all. The texture is only encountered today on the bridge from Lakeside.
Gallery
Leftover model of J7.
Leftover model of I8.
Sketch of Labyrinth's layout, showing how several aspects of the battle worked.
Translated sketch of Labyrinth.
Sketch of the Labyrinth from the Nico bonus DVD. The above sketch is a cross-sectional view of the one below.
